Shades of Black
by LiLyAsAlWaYs
Summary: A series of one-shots mainly focused of the Black family  mostly Sirius though, because we all love him. My first story, so be nice and review, please! Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter... obviously
1. The Fates

Chapter 2: The Fates (A/N: I still do not own Harry Potter)

It was the Halloween Feast in the Great Hall, and the three Black Sisters were sitting at the Slytherin table. They may have been close in proximity, but in every other way, they were as contrary as could be.

Narcissa, the oldest, in sixth year, was having a long, whispered conversation with her fiance, Lucius Malfoy, whom she absolutely adored. However, the mutual feeling seemed to linger. Narcissa was quite beautiful. Her shiny, long blond hair flowed halfway to her waist and her sea blue eyes shined like waterfall in the sun's rays. But there was something else about her. Something that made her appearance less welcoming. Perhaps it was her skin. It was as pale as any ivory. She seemed lost, almost. Lost in translation.

Bellatrix, the youngest, in third year, was, when not stabbing ruthlessly at her food, was scrutinizing the Great Hall and eying a certain dark haired, first year Gryfindor boy with great interest. It was her own cousin, Sirius. Later that day, Lucius would take her and Sirius to, what they called, a Demonstration of Power. In hopes of persuading him to have a more appropriate mindset. Bellatrix would have been equally as beautiful as her sister. She had a majestic face, like it was chiseled out of stone. She could make people bow to her will with just one look. She was powerful. And with power, she went mad long ago. She hoped to be a Death Eater one day. She hoped that one day, she would be the most powerful, feared woman in the whole world.

Andromeda, the middle one, in fourth year, was not eating. She sat with her head resting on her arm, watching the Hufflepuff table. Ted Tonks, in particular. He confused Andromeda. He was a Mudblood, but he wasn't uncivilized, dangerous, or disgusting in any way. He was laughing with his friends; Andromeda looked around her table. No one was laughing at anything mildly funny. Occasionally someone would snicker at someone, but there was no general joke telling in Slytherin, unless it involved a slur about blood purity. That was because no one trusted each other enough. Half of them were Death Eaters anyway.

There was a distant voice calling her name, but it was faint, until- "Andromeda!"

She was awoken from her pondering by Bella from across the table. "Hmm?"

"I asked you something," Bella said in an annoyed tone.

"Can you ask it again?" Andromeda mused. Bella scrunched up her face in annoyance.

"Why are you staring at the 'Puffs?"

"Just thinking about how many Mudbloods are in there," she lied. "Because Hufflepuff admits anyone without any sort of talent or nobility. So basically, anyone who has nothing going for them." Bella grunted in agreement and began in a lower voice "Tonight, Lucius is taking Walburga's boy and me to meet some stupid first year 'Puff. He's going to demonstrate what it means to be a Death Eater to us."

"I didn't think that Sirius was interested," Andromeda stated.

"You know that the Dark Lord doesn't like that," Bella said in a twisted grin. "He has ways of changing people's minds."

"Why is Lucius taking you?" Andromeda asked. "I didn't think women could be Death Eaters."

"Well, since father has failed to produce a male heir, he's had to choose the best suited for the position," as Bella said this, she puffed out her chest, acting very proud.

"Congratulations," Andromeda mumbled. She would have bet her inheritance that Bella having a license from the Dark Lord to kill and torture would only bring war and chaos. Also known as, very very bad.

"Hold on," said Andromeda "You haven't actually met him yet, have you? The Dark Lord?" She whispered the last words as if they were plagued. Bella gave a creepy chuckle.

"No, Andromeda, of course not," she said. "The Dark Lord has more important things on his agenda than to meet with a prospective future Death Eater. No, that will happen later. I haven't finished my education yet. Then I shall join full time. The Dark Lord thinks that education is a key role in power. Father said."

Andromeda just nodded and went back to her meal, feeling a little sick in her stomach about all that would happen to her family in the next few years after school. Cissy would be married. Bella would be married also, most likley, and be a Death Eater. Sirius would have his arm twisted by his entire family to join the Dark Lord. Regulus would be the same, probably. Andromeda, however, didn't know where she was going. Her parents probably would arrange her marriage to some rich, Pureblood man. She would spend the rest of her life in a lovless marriage. But first she had to finish her education. Even if she would do absolutley nothing after school ended. If education was what the Dark Lord wanted from his worshippers, than that's what she would have to give him. was all pointless.

Andromeda felt her lungs constrict on her as she thought this. She felt as if her parents were just throwing her to the werewolves. She was a worthless pawn to them in their quest for power. She was stranded, by herself. Screaming, but nobody heard. Or perhaps they just didn't care. She diverted her eyes to the Hufflepuffs again. They were still laughing. Carefree. Ted Tonks's hazel eyes met hers for a moment, and in that moment she knew she would be able to save herself from her own dreaded future.


	2. Familial Matters

Chapter 3: Familial Matters 

It was a Friday evening in May at Hogwarts castle. And, as usual, there were the usual nighttime prowlers looking for trouble. Among those troublemakers were everyone's favorite gang of fifth year boys; The Marauders.

That night, they had accomplished a great feat; they discovered a new secret passageway on the third floor to add to their map. The only reason they hadn't discovered it sooner was because it was blocked by a mirror. The only reason they _had _was because Sirius Black had been smoothing out his hair in the mirror when his fellow Marauder, Peter, or Wormtail, had knocked into him, hence causing Sirius to topple into and break through it, only to find his head was not smashed against a wall, but was inside a tunnel.

Sirius, or Padfoot, as his fellow Marauders called him, was especially giddy about this. When it was discovered, he practically leaped for joy, only his head was still wedged through the mirror. Remus Lupin, also known as Moony, had to calm him down before he physically harmed himself. And as always, James Potter only encouraged his best friend's behavior, to Moony's displeasure. And as always, Wormtail just agreed with James.

However, in contrary to their belief, they were not they only wanderers of the witching hour that night. For, another group was wandering the corridors of the castle.

The second year Slytherin, Regulus Black, had been dragged out of the comfort of his dorm room by his roommate, Julius Avery, to meet his relative of lament, Bellatrix Black. She wanted to meet some stupid Gryffindor first year so she could demonstrate some Dark Curses to the boys, who were to be her protégées.

Regulus knew Bellatrix had a sick mind. But, as his brother was doing to his best to cut all ties with their lovely mother, he was expected to be the Death Eater of the family. He was not thrilled. However, he needed to keep up appearances.

Both groups were now just rounding the same corner next to the portraits of Tomas à Becket and Melville the Maniacal. James heard footsteps from the corridor and held up his hand to silence the reveling of his friends.

"Who's there?" he asked into the darkness. There was a sick sort of maniacal laughter coming from the darkness. Suddenly, a tall, dark, beautiful figure emerged from the blackness and into James' wand light. She had pin-straight, pitch black hair and her lips were contorted into a mocking pout that made her look like a loon. She was twirling her wand carelessly through her hair, winding her hair around it, like a snake. She eyed James and chuckled creepily again as James raised his wand, ready to strike.

"Aww, baby Potter," she said in a baby voice throatily. "You can put down the wand. Do you honestly think you could beat me."

"What are you doing here!" yelled Sirius. His face had gone from his handsome cheeriness into a deep red scowl.

"Ah," Bellatrix sighed, eying him as though he were a slug. "It's you. Figures. You always did need all of your little body guards to face me. Last time I saw you, you were hiding your room... I thought you were supposed to be brave."

"Shut up!" Sirius screamed. His face was burning red as a tomato. Bellatrix just gave him a nasty, satisfied grin.

"Is the baby too cowardly to face big bad Bella?" mocked Bellatrix in the baby voice again.

"I thought I told you to shut up, you sick bitch!" he screamed. Suddenly, his angered expression fell significantly. He saw the dimmed silhouette of his little brother in the shadow of Death Eater.

"What are you doing?" Sirius demanded if his younger brother. Regulus opened his mouth to answer, but Bellatrix answered first.

"Oh, Baby Black is coming with me to meet one of your younger house mates." she answered in a grin fit for the Cheshire Cat. "For future reference... you know. Same things I took you to when you were younger."

Sirius lunged at his cousin with out hesitation. He took out his wand and pushed it against her neck, his breathing was rapid. Instead of acting concerned, she chuckled lightly.

"What are you going to do to me, Sirius? Kill me?" She cackled maniacally, but Sirius just shoved her further into the wall. The portraits near them began to edge away from their frames and away from the scene in fear of being cursed.

"Try me," he whispered deathly. Bellatrix smirked. She muttered a strange incantation under her breath and Sirius was blasted against the other wall with a sickening crack. Bellatrix now had a full blown smile. She had probably just killed him. She knew Walburga would be pleased with her work. She guided the two second years away from the limp body of Sirius Black.

The Marauders had witnessed the entire exchange silently, in shock. They knew from experience to never get in between Sirius and Bellatrix. When the Death Eater walked away, they hurried to Sirius, who was not waking up. The crack they heard when he hit the wall had them all frightened beyond belief.

"Is he... you know," gulped James. Remus scrutinized Sirius's body carefully.

"Broken neck," he said.

"How can you tell?" asked Peter.

"The angle of his head," Remus explained, pointing toward the awkward angle his best friend's head was at. James gagged.

"We need to get him to the hospital wing now," said Remus, picking Sirius up and supporting his head. "I run the fastest. Go tell McGonagall what Bellatrix is doing."

From their shock, all the other two Marauders could do was nod and run as fast as they could toward the Deputy Headmistress' office. Remus ran down the corridor at twice the speed of a normal man, thanks to his lycanthropy.

As it turned out, Sirius would be fine. Madam Pomfrey had been awake, doing paperwork in her office. She flipped when she saw the severity of Sirius' injury. Fortunately, she repaired his neck in about ten minutes. She also told Remus that if he had gotten there a minute later, Sirius would have been paralyzed. Remus left that bit of information out when he recounted his experience with the nurse to James and Peter later.

Remus, James, and Peter had stayed in the hospital all night in chairs next to the bed Sirius was in. It was now 9:00 in the morning. Remus had fallen asleep and was now snoring like... well, like a werewolf.

Sirius opened one eye cautiously. He found himself with bandages all around his upper body. He couldn't sit up. He turned his head toward the figures next to his bed. He tried to speak, but he found it quite impossible. He rolled his eyes and settled for staring blankly at the wall. His friends hadn't seen him move. He did this for about an hour, until Madam Pomfrey announced that his friends needed to get to class and that he had another visitor. He couldn't see who it was, but automatically, he knew. On a piece of paper on his bedside table, he wrote, 'Hey, Reg.'

Regulus watched his brother looking so helpless, knowing that it was Bellatrix's fault. He loved his brother. He really did. He knew Sirius loved him too, even if he didn't always want to show it. That's why Sirius cared about what Bellatrix was doing to him.

"Hi, Sirius," he whispered. Sirius smirked. "I'm sorry," Regulus whispered. "You should know, I didn't want to go see Bella hurt that Gryfindor. Avery dragged me. And you know what she would've done to me if I didn't go." He shuddered.

Sirius wrote, 'I know. I had to do it too.'

"She's sick," Regulus said bluntly. "I don't want to be like her, Sirius. But I may not have a choice."

Sirius wrote, 'That's my fault. I'm sorry, Reg.'

"I don't blame you," Regulus whispered. "You're just lucky. You have the right friends. You're in the right House. Not me, though."

Sirius wrote, 'Reg, it's okay. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Thank you," Regulus said. "For everything, Sirius."

He squeezed his brother's hand and let go quickly. Regulus left with his black robes billowing behind him, and did not look back.


	3. The First Date

Chapter 1:The First Date (A/N: and I don't own Harry Potter... just in case you thought I did)

It was Friday evening in the Great Hall. Lily Evans was sitting with her fellow sixth years, Alice, Marlene, and Sandra. The were all talking about their day and schoolwork and such, because that is simply what those girls did for fun. Unlike the Marauders, who thought fun was about being chased by the caretaker, Mr. Filch and his cat halfway around the castle. The Marauders were the most obnoxious group of boys that Lily had ever had the indecency to meet. Their aim in life seemed to be to cause as much mayhem as possible. She probably would not have minded as much if it was merely harmless pranks, but it wasn't. But the worst part of the entire situation was that their leader, worst of the worst of them, was chosen to be Head Boy. Head Boy, for Merlin's sake! The only reasonable explanation Lily could come up with was that the Headmaster had had a temporary fit of insanity when choosing the roles of Heads.

Another strange thing was that no matter how much Lily tried to avoid the boys, the more they popped up in her daily life. This may not be such a mystery, though, because James Potter had declared his love her countlessly. It got irritating.

At the moment Lily's mind was far from the Marauders. In fact, she was so mesmerized in conversation that she did not notice a certain black haired boy looking at her hopelessly. He was almost on the verge of tears, which was unheard of from James Potter. He hid it well, though. After James tore his eyes away from the redhead to stare aimlessly at his dinner, the dark haired boy sitting across from him suddenly got up from his seat and walked down the table toward Lily.

"Hey, Evans," he said "Can I talk to you?" Lily turned to him with her face cringed. "Why, Black?" she asked. "I just need to talk to you..." he said again "In private." Lily looked into his face and saw that he was pleading with her. Who knew Sirius Black would plead with anyone? He always seemed like one of those big, muscle-y, save the word type of fellows. It was quite unlike him. This must be important. She sighed. "Fine," she said reluctantly, pushing up from the table and wiping her mouth one last time. She followed him out of the hall without looking back. When they reached the entrance hall, Sirius spun around to face her.

"What is this about, Black?" Lily asked stubbornly.

"Look, Evans," he began with a scowl on his face "There's only so many times a guy can be rejected before they go completely insane!" "What are you talking about?" inquired Lily as though she had no idea what Sirius was going to say next.

"Oh, don't insult my intelligence!" he barked "I will not let your stubbornness destroy my best friend!"

"I'm sure he can handle himself, thanks," snapped Lily crossing her arms over her chest.

"He can," said Sirius quietly "He has for the past four years. But now he's going insane! Just go out with him once, or you'll have the Marauders to deal with!"

"You can't tell me that Potter doesn't want to go out with me only because I'm the only girl here who refused him!" Lily scoffed.

"Come on!" he fumed "The man's a total wreck because of you!"

Lily tapped her feet in thought for a moment. She was careful not to look Sirius in the eye because she knew that the helpless look he had would convince her. Unfortunately, she couldn't avoid his gaze forever.

"Fine," she spat "I'll do it-" Sirius' face lit up "-But don't expect anything to happen."

Then Sirius did something very strange; he came up to her and hugged her. "Black," she said as he was crushing her "You're crushing me." He let go, but kept his hands on her arms. "Thank you," he whispered "You have no idea." He then walked into the Great Hall.

Lily watched him as he sat down and started eating merrily, as usual, reveling in his success. Lily sighed and walked down to where James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat. They looked up at her as she stopped in from of them. "Potter," she said. James looked up at her glumly. "I've decided to go out with you," she said forceably, not daring to look James or Remus in the eye. James, however, looked as though Christmas had come early.

"Are- Are you serious?" he asked, wide-eyed, beaming like an idiot. "Yes," Lily huffed.

"But why?" he asked.

"I've just agreed to go out with you! Why are you questioning it?" she retorted. James beamed at her.

"How about next weekend at Hogsmeade?" he asked.

"Erm..." she stalled. Sirius gave her a glare so dark that she could almost see into the depths of his cold, tortured soul. "Sure," she feinted a smile. "Okay," said James cheerfully. "Yeah," said Lily. She gave them a small smile and walked away.

Just when she thought she had escaped from Potter, a shout came from across the table "I love you too, Evans!"

She turned and faced him, glaring daggers into his stupid, over sized head. He smiled wryly to himself and turned back to the Marauders. "Toerag," she muttered.

When she reached the side of the table where she sat at originally, her friends were all looking at her with great interest.

"What'd he want?" asked Marlene.

"He wanted me to go out with Potter," Lily answered stiffly.

"Probably because the poor bloke's going quite mad without mutual love from you, Evans dear," teased Alice. "Did he try to murder you when you said no?"

"...I didn't exactly say no..." Lily muttered hesitantly. Sandra gasped.

"You said yes?" she asked, appalled.

"Black gave me the sob story," began Lily, digging into her food violently.

"Oh," said Sandra, relaxing in her seat "So when are you going on your date?" she asked teasingly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Next Hogsmeade weekend," she mumbled "I have a feeling that if I hold it off, Black'll kill me in my sleep."

"At least term's almost over," Alice piped in. Lily loved Alice because of her ability to look at the bright side even in dark times such as these. The girls smiled and began a new conversation about their plans for the summer holidays, leaving their last topic abandoned for the moment.


	4. The End

Chapter 4: The End 

It was Friday.

Odd, how all the significant events in the life of Sirius Black happened on that day of the week.

Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks were in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. Nymphadora, or as everyone called her, 'Tonks,' was unconscious in a rest bed. Remus was watching her carefully from a chair next to her. He was leaning on his left hand, which was covering his mouth. His prematurely lined brow was furrowed. Tonk's hair had returned to it's natural chestnut color. It made her look very peaceful, taking into account what had just occurred at the Department of Mysteries.

He had been that way for at least an hour now. In that time, the commotion in the ward had a violent crescendo. He supposed that everyone had gotten word of Voldemort's return from the Ministry.

Tonks stirred in her sleep. Remus became suddenly alert and leaned forward. She began mumbling incoherently.

"Rem- Remus..." she mumbled a bit louder. Remus knelled next to her, outstretching his hand to hers. She squeezed it tightly. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting as though it had been the first time she had opened her eyes in years.

She tried to get up,but couldn't. Remus supported her back as she shuffled herself into a sitting up position. She winced in pain as she slowly flexed her back. That was were the Death Eater had cursed her. There was a large gash crossing her spine now.

"What happened?" she asked him, holding her palm to her forehead and wincing some more.

"You're fine," he replied. "You're in St. Mungo's. You had a few nasty hexes done to you, though."

"Sirius?" she asked weakly, although she knew perfectly well what the answer was. Remus's face fell into a twisted grimace. He shook his head slightly. Tonks cover her mouth and gasped, leaning back onto her pillow.

"I-I was fighting Bellatrix," she began, choking up tears. "If I had only finished her off before..."

"There was nothing you could have done," Remus reassured her.

"The veil?" she asked. To her surprise, Remus snorted in amusement. "You think it's amusing?" she demanded.

"Well, of all the ways I figured Sirius would die, I would have never guessed he would have gotten killed by drapery. James would've had a laughing fit for weeks just at the idea." Tonks smirked at that.

"That's Sirius for you," she said. "Unpredictable 'till the end... How is everyone else?"

"All the children are safe, as are the rest of the Order," Remus replied. "And the Ministry has finally announced the return of Voldemort."

"It's about bloody time!" Tonks exclaimed. "It was- what?- A year?"

Remus smiled at her reaction and said "Hopefully the new Minister will be a bit more proactive with the Anti-Voldemort movement."

"He had better!" she yelled. "I don't think I can stand another one of these Fudge-types."

"That makes two of us," Remus complied quietly.

He looked out the window of the room. It was pouring. 'How chliché,' he thought. There were hundreds of ignorant Muggles walking by, not realizing how much danger they were in.

Then he saw something that made the air in his lungs constrict.

It was a black dog on the street, looking up at the window. Not a Grim, but enough to remind Remus of the hard truth; He, Remus Lupin, was the last of the Marauders.

His knees weakened and they gave out, he knelled on Tonk's bed. A tear rolled down his scarred face. Tonks hugged him as he leaned into her and sobbed, losing control of all the emotions he had been keeping bottled up for fifteen years.


End file.
